The hottest day so far at the Australian Open pushes the players to their limits. Melbourne champion Jannik Sinner is also suffering and limping. “I don’t know what to do,” he says. The heat rule eventually leads to disruption.
Nothing worked for Jannik Sinner, second in the world rankings. The heat in Melbourne had filled his body so much that it began to go on strike. “I don’t know what to do,” said the 24-year-old to his coaching team at the Australian Open. But he got up from his seat again and tried.
In the end, the defending champions from Italy defied the intense heat and fought their way into the round of 16 despite severe cramps. Sinner defeated the American Eliot Spizzirri 4:6, 6:3, 6:4, 6:4 on the hottest day of this year’s tournament so far, but reached his physical limits in the process.
At temperatures of up to 38 degrees, Sinner had major problems with cramps and could barely walk at times. When the score was 4:6, 6:3, 1:2, the Melbourne champion of the past two years had himself treated for the first time. But the massage on his legs didn’t seem to work at first. Sinner just hobbled across the pitch.
Sinner then had to give up his serve to make it 1:3 before the game was interrupted due to the extreme heat in order to close the roof over the Rod Laver Arena. Sinner disappeared into the cabin to cool off. He later said: “I was lucky with the heat rule today. I had cramps everywhere. I know I need to improve in that area.” The Italian was still proud of himself after the feat. “Tennis is a very mental game. I tried to stay calm and find a way. I succeeded.”
The heat rule Sinner mentioned has been in effect at the Australian Open for several years and is called the “Heat Stress Scale”. This is a scale from one to five which, in addition to the air temperature, also takes into account the direct heat radiation from the sun, air humidity and wind speed. If a value of 5.0 is reached, the games must be interrupted and the roofs in the large arenas must be closed. On the other pitches the game remains interrupted for a longer period of time.
The 85th in the tennis world held up strongly
For Sinner, the rule was his salvation on this hot Saturday in Melbourne. Under the closed roof and with the air conditioning running, the Italian still had physical problems, but he was now able to get the difficulties under control to some extent. A year ago he had already suffered extremely from the heat in the round of 16 against the Dane Holger Rune and was only able to avert an exit with difficulty.
This time Sinner suffered again, but also found a way against Spizzirri. The third set alone against the strong 85th in the tennis world lasted 76 minutes before Sinner secured passage 6:4. Spizzirri continued to hold on brilliantly, but the defending champion now made use of his experience and converted his second match point after 3:45 hours.
No longer in Australia is Naomi Osaka, who made a film-worthy appearance in her first round game with an extravagant outfit. The 28-year-old had to cancel her third round game against Australian Maddison Inglis due to an abdominal injury. The game should have taken place on Saturday in the night session in the Rod Laver Arena.
dpa/mel
